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“Well, I’ll look forward to having that discussion with him, then.” She leans back in her seat, pulling her cup of coffee closer. “How are we going about this?”
“You’ll contact Matvei on your own. You can come up with whatever reason you’d like for why you want to see him again, but let me know after you’ve spoken with him when and where you’ll be meeting him. I can meet you at your apartment to head over—”
“Not there.” She cuts me off abruptly, something firm and sharp in her voice. “We can meet somewhere else. Anywhere you like—just not at my place.”
That brings me up short a little. She clearly has a reason for not wanting me to know where she lives, and it makes me wonder what she’s hiding. But then again, she might not be hiding anything at all. It wouldn’t be so strange for a woman who works as an escort not to want men to know her home address.
“Alright then. I’ll come up with somewhere else. Anyway—the point is, I’ll meet you, and we go together to Matvei’s. He’s never met me, so he doesn’t know I work for the Kings. I’ll be your bodyguard, full stop. Someone you bring along to make sure that the johns don’t get fresh.”
Asha wrinkles her nose. “Don’t call them that.”
“What?”
“Johns.” She waves her hand. “I’m notthatkind of escort. Not anymore. This will be the first time I’ve made an outcall since—”
She breaks off suddenly, her teeth sinking into her lower lip as if she’s realized that she’s said more than she meant to. “Anyway. So I’ll meet you, and you’ll be my security. Just you?”
I nod. “Just me.”
“And if he gets rough? If I use my safeword and he doesn’t listen?”
“Here.” I reach into my pocket, pulling out a flat box, and Asha’s eyebrow shoots up.
“Oh, Finn, you shouldn’t have,” she says archly, her voice faux-sarcastic and high-pitched, and I don’t know whether to laugh or not, considering the reason I brought this for her.
“I wish it was just a gift.” I hand her the box and watch as she opens it to reveal a flat, wide gold bangle. “There’s a sensor in the bracelet. Be careful how hard you press your wrist against something; if it sets it off, it’ll send a signal to my phone, and I’ll know I need to come in and get you—in the event that you can’t—”
I can’t even finish the fucking sentence. I should be more detached about this, better able to talk about the possibilities of what might happen, but just the idea of her being trapped, gagged, bound—unable to call for me for help or get away, has me seething with anger that feels difficult to contain.”
“If I can’t shout for you or you’re out of hearing range.” Asha nods, looking at the bracelet. She says it almost casually, as if my saying that to her is as normal as discussing our coffee order, and it makes me wince. There’s something in her face, though, a faint, drawn look that tells me that something about it bothers her more than she’s letting on.
“We’ve put things like this into jewelry before. It’s easy for a man to wear a signet ring, or even a faux wedding band with something like that in it, before going into a dangerous situation. Nikolai has something similar in a piece of jewelry for Lilliana, in case something ever happens to her. It was easy to have it installed for you.”
Asha smiles faintly. “Thank you. That’s very thoughtful, covering all your bases like that.”
I want to reach out and take her hand, tell her that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her safe. I know how soft her skin would feel under my fingers, but I want to know what it would be like to have her wrap her fingers around mine, to let me be more than just this to her. I want—
I can’t even begin to unpack all of the things that I want with her.
“We’ll come up with a name for me to go by,” I continue, “so he doesn’t hear Finn and go putting two and two together. Hell, I don’t know. Charlie.” I laugh, before realizing that she doesn’t know I’ve stolen the name of the bartender at my favorite dive.
I find myself wishing she did know. Wishing that she and I had those kinds of inside jokes, that this was a coffee date and not a neutral place to talk about a job. Wishing that she’d tell me more about why she said she used to be a different kind of escort, instead of shutting down the way she had.
It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to know more about a woman like this. Since I’ve wanted more than just a few nights of distraction and then moved on. Truthfully, I hadn’t ever thought I’d feel like this again.
And, of course, it’s for someone who I shouldn’t feel anything even approaching the way I do.
“Just you.” Asha pulls her lower lip between her teeth again, and it’s all I can do not to look directly at her mouth. “You’re going to take on Matvei all on your own if he gets out of hand. Not to disparage your abilities as security or anything, but—” She looks more than a little dubious. “He probably has security of his own.”
“I can manage,” I assure her. “You’re right that he almost certainly does have his own, but you can’t show up with an entire team. Thatwouldset off some red flags for him. You’ll be safe with me, Asha. I’ll make sure of it.”
She lets out a slow breath. “You can’t tell me there’s no danger in this.”
“No, I can’t,” I agree. “In fact, I won’t, because you’d know I was full of shit, and you’d walk away, and you’d be right to do so. But I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, Asha, and I wouldn’t put you in danger that I didn’t think you or I were capable of handling.”
She looks at me for a long moment, those liquid brown eyes holding mine. “Why?” she asks finally. “Why are you so concerned for my safety? Why not just throw me to Matvei and see what you find out after? Let him do as he pleases?” She shrugs as if it doesn’t matter, but I can see a keen curiosity on her face. “He might be more forthcoming, without restrictions to hold him back. Without the threat of anyone trying to stop him.”
Just the thought of it has me seeing red. It’s bad enough that I’m going to stand by while this asshole gets to be anywhere near her, that he gets to see that perfect body, have her lips and hands touching him. Bad enough that I’m going to go home thinking about that, when I desperately want her inmybed. The thought of him hurting her is unconscionable.
